


wildflowers

by Anonymous



Category: Gintama
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, First Dates, M/M, Mutual Pining, Non-Linear Narrative, Obviously OOC, lapslock, sex in last chapter, they're both professors
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:28:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27247297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: "and perhaps he liked that; hearing how supposedly gintoki was fond of him. he liked how he felt like he could afford to daydream when the words weren’t his."
Relationships: Hijikata Toshirou & Sakata Gintoki, Hijikata Toshirou/Sakata Gintoki
Comments: 10
Kudos: 25
Collections: Anonymous





	wildflowers

**Author's Note:**

> kyoju = professor. correct me if i'm wrong, please!

This Friday 

the sky is a warm orange when hijikata is done with his lectures for this friday. in his office room, the cacti sitting on his windowsill are drinking in the sunlight, sparse specks of dust reflecting against his dark bookshelves. hijikata puts down the thick textbook onto his desk, organized neatly so he never has to spend time searching for something. being back in his space calms his nerves a little.

but katsura’s smug face flashes through his mind and he has to lean against his desk, thumbing his temple as a tirade of thoughts jumble up into an unprocessable mess; all of it leading up to one point : gintoki.

the discussion that took place during lunch that day still puts tingles in his spine. all throughout class afterwards, he had acted distracted. it was unsightly; how he had to pause and consider the symbol for Molybdenum. he has a phD in chemistry, for heaven’s sake. 

hijikata pours himself a cup of water, lukewarm glass against his lips. he has to calm down. it was just gossip.

_given how reserved you are, hijikata-kyoju, i must say i thought you would be, how to say, more anal about transgressions._

shyness creeps up his neck in tints of tingling red. what was said hadn’t even been vulgar, but the implication that, that _anything_ happened between him and gintoki, much less sex, that was,

_heard from the grapevine his face was in your crotch?_

it wasn’t. the glass slams when he puts it down, the light splitting into small rainbows when they hit it and bending to it’s whims. his face _burns._ he was adamant in saying no, but katsura had just smirked at the misunderstood flush rushing rapidly all over his face and neck, and he should never have agreed to go to lunch with the history professor. should have found it odd when he had texted him about wanting to catch up when every time they had met _,_ he went on about gintoki and him.

and perhaps he liked that; hearing how supposedly gintoki was fond of him. he liked how he felt like he could afford to daydream when the words weren’t his. today however, the discussion was about last thursday which he very much had been closing his eyes against; typing rapidly on his keyboard so the sound of his fingers raining down harshly on the keys would drown out his thoughts. else, he would yell loudly (in weaker moments) so he could force the images out of his head.

because that moment had been more tender than when gintoki had tried to fix his tie before class once, which hadn’t needed any fixing. he was just messing up his outfit while making hijikata late for his class. he wanted to yell then, but he couldn’t take his eyes off of the pale underneath of gintoki’s wrist, and he couldn't get rid of the longing that had stained him wherever gintoki’s fingers had brushed against the skin of his neck.

lost in his thoughts, as he sits down in his chair, hijikata’s gaze suddenly falls on the JUMP left on his office couch and the memories rush in like they want to possess him. 

  
  


Last Thursday 

  
  


“there’s a water leak in my office,” gintoki states like it’s irrefutable. 

hijikata looks up from his desktop, reading glasses slipping down the slope of his nose. he considers his colleague with a blink. 

then he goes back to typing.

“so you...chose to bring your JUMP with you, out of all the academic textbooks, costing thousands by the way, that you’ve collected over your entire academia?”

“do you have to be so judgemental?! i’ve been waiting for this reveal for three years!” 

and hijikata knows if he looks up he will have a harder time holding in his smile, so he resolutely stays silent, raising only an eyebrow and nodding his head in quiet acquiescence.

there might have been more fanfare to their interactions, a quip thrown in, and a flirty request of surrender which gintoki has slowly, but newly taken to (hijikata doesn’t reply, or, can’t, because it hurts to breathe). this week though, the days are longer because gintoki has been busy with the final stages of his latest research project. he had passed by his office during lunch sometimes, pretending that gintoki had stolen stationary from his office just to see what he was up to.

everytime, he would catch gintoki either talking on his phone, with word documents open, or stress eating donuts and/or chocolate puddings while watching random youtube videos. he had seen the photographs of the botanical dissections gintoki and his students had made, spectroscopy graphs and codes for the genetic mutations scattered all throughout his office in a precious, organized mess. 

each time he went, gintoki would look up and his shoulders would sag as his muscles lost their tension at the sight of him, but that could just be hijikata’s wishful thinking.

this morning, gintoki was done with his submission to the scientific journal, and when hijikata glances at him, he finds him having fallen asleep, arm under his head which is faced towards where hijikata had been grading assignments.

a deluded warmth holds hijikata’s cheeks in it’s hands. it could be a coincidence. it must be a coincidence.

it’s past six now, so he should wake him, and lock up. he should go home, feed his cat, catch up with his cooking show. instead he is crouching over gintoki, lost in the way his lashes cast shadows against his cheekbones. 

how he envies them, to be able to touch him in that way.

“sakata-kyoju,” he calls, “wake up, we need to leave,” and somehow the distance between his hand and gintoki’s shoulder has never been so daunting, the way his yearning burns him is shocking.

gintoki opens bleary eyes, catching hijikata; red eyes eclipsing before disappearing like they were done with their errand.

arms reach out toward hijikata like hydrangeas seeking rain, and wrap around his thighs. one hand searches it's way up to the groove of his waist and rests there, pulling him in.

gintoki tilts his face against hijikata's knees, hiding most of it, then sighs like he's home, and hijikata thinks that he has never known what it feels like to speak. 

fingers ridden with hesitation, hijikata slowly brings them down and let's himself gently push stray strands of gintoki's hair behind his ear. 

gintoki hums sleepily.

he thinks that everything in this room that has been privy to his longing is watching with great patience. he can hear his own heartbeat now, slowing down, speeding up, slowing down again, 

and he thinks, he may really diㅡ

there are swift knocks against his door and even quicker, the door is opened and yamazaki stands there.

frozen against ticking time, yamazaki awkwardly goes to close the door, and in a rush of breathlessness hijikata says, “you never saw anything.”

yamazaki nods rapidly, seemingly mutters an apology before the door is shut softly.

(and that’s how the rumor spreads.)

  
  


This Friday 

  
  


hijikata picks up the JUMP, left forgotten after he had removed gintoki's arms from around him and shaken him awake. embarrassed by how vulnerable he felt, he rushed gintoki out and the same weight of that embarrassment has been keeping him out of his office more often.

hijikata closes his eyes against it, hoping his feelings have mercy on him. he hides a soft groan into the cover of the comic. 

“you’re acting like a coward,” he whispers like they're confessions, “an absolute fool.”

there are two taps on his door.

“hijikata-kyoju,” gintoki says in a familiar drawl, “please stop molesting my JUMP.”

hijikata lets out a long breath. he turns around to face the door, and gintoki stands there against the doorframe with the light pouring in from the hallway windows; his silhouette is golden.

“what do you want,” he remarks, “i’m busy.” 

“clearly.” gintoki says with a raised eyebrow, gaze shifting between him and the book in his hand, and nods toward it. “i’m here for your lover for the evening, i guess.” his tone is gentle.

hijikata holds the book out for him, but gintoki doesn’t make a move to take it. he’s looking at hijikata almost pensively.

“is there a problㅡ”

“i,” gintoki says, and hijikata presses his lips together, bringing the book to his side, fingers pressing worry into the cover, “i thought i was so suave, but you really make me nervous.”

“huh?”

gintoki's gaze is heavy. hijikata can't seem to look away.

“go out with me.” he says, “on a date.”

hijikata’s eyes widen, mouth falling open. he blinks, and blinks, and blinks,

“okay.” he says.

“okay?” gintoki replies, his own eyes wide.

“yeah.” hijikata says, “yeah. let’s go on a date.”

a slow smile blooms across gintoki’s face, “okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> actually, i heard the author likes comments and gets motivated by them! next chapter we will get more gintoki and hijikata interactions, and, well, i wanted to make the first chapter such that gintoki is present even when he's not....well anyway!! au revoir?  
> (the work is anonymous because i'm thinking of changing my pen-name!!)  
> oh, also! "(hijikata doesn’t reply, or, can’t, because it hurts to breathe)" this line was inspired by UMI's song Breathe. i was listening to it whilst writing it!  
> okay au revoir for real, folks.


End file.
